Interchangeable lens camera system having improved control information communication facility

DETAILED DESCRIPTION It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an interchangeable-lens type camera system in which it is possible to smoothly control a lens assembly.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a camera system capable of efficiently controlling each function of a lens assembly by communication with a camera assembly.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a camera system in which control information associated with each unit to be controlled in a lens assembly and detection information indicative of the driven state thereof can be readily independently communicated between camera and lens assemblies irrespective of the number or kinds of units to be controlled, whereby it is possible to completely assure compatibility with respect to various lens assemblies including different numbers of units to be controlled.
To achieve the above objects, in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a camera system capable of controlling a plurality of units in a lens assembly on the basis of control information transmitted from a camera assembly.
The camera system comprises camera-side control means disposed in the camera assembly for transmitting the control information to the lens assembly, and lens-side control means disposed in the lens assembly for receiving the control information transmitted from the camera assembly and controlling the aforesaid plurality of units to be controlled.
Each of the units includes driving means and detecting means for detecting a displacement provided by the driving means.
The camera-side control means is arranged to serially transmit the control information on each of the units to the lens-side control means as a block corresponding to each of the units to be controlled, while the lens-side control means is arranged to drive the driving means in each of the units on the basis of the control information and to serially transmit to the camera-side control means information on each of the units, which is outputted from the detecting means, as a block corresponding to each of the units to be controlled